Titel des Dissertationsprojekts
"Ungesund ist es hier, in dem alle Jahr die Europianen welche hier sind, das hitzige Fieber bekommen, und gemeiniglich das halbe Theil daran stirbet" - Arzt und Patientenerfahrungen im Dienst der niederländischen Ostindienkompanie V.O.C.
(abgeschlossen im November 2019)
Projektskizze
As illustrated by the comment of the young soldier Christoph Schweitzer cited in the title, disease and death were permanent threats to V.O.C. personnel in the East Indies. This leads to the question how members of V.O.C. staff did fare as patients and practitoners. How did they experience unknown diseases, how did they adapt these to their notions of illness and what kinds of treatment did they administrate? Travel accounts, journals and other contemporary publications not only give evidence about symptoms and courses of diseases, they also provide insights into values and fears of the respective author as well as to the search for new forms of treatment given that established therapies remained without effect.